IBPS PO 2017: Check Detailed Section Wise Exam Analysis

IBPS PO 2017: Check Detailed Section Wise Exam Analysis The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection has issued its schedule for the banking exam for the post of Probationary officer in public sector. The exam will be conducted in two levels- Tier 1 and Tier 2 (Preliminary and Mains Exam). The board has released the official schedule of the examination.

The online registrations for the exam will begin on August 16th, 2018 and candidates will be able to apply for the same till September 5th, 2018. The hall ticket for IBPS PO will be made available to be downloaded for candidates who successfully apply for the exam from September 23-29, 2018. The actual exam will be conducted on October 13, 14 and October 20, 21, 2018.

For a better understanding of the upcoming exam, it is crucial to analyze the exam that was held in 2017. IBPS PO Mains 2017 was held on November 26th. Student reviews stated that the exam was tremendously difficult. Not only that, there was there some shuffling in the sections of the exam along with certain surprising changes in its pattern. The candidates who gave the exam admitted that their best chance to clear the exam was to stay calm and not panic. They said had they panicked, they would have lost marks not just in the twisted questions, but also in the questions they were confident about.

IBPS conducted PO Mains exam 2017 had 155 questions to be attempted in 180 minutes that weighed 200 marks. There were four sections, namely Reasoning & Computer Aptitude, General Economy & Banking Awareness, English Language and Data Analysis & Interpretation. All the sections except the section on the English Language were available bilingually, that is, both in English and in Hindi. Each question had 5 options. 0.25 marks were deducted for each incorrect attempt.

The detailed discussion and analyses of the exam helps the aspiring candidates of IBPS PO 2018 to review and refresh their memory of IBPS PO 2017. This would not only help them focus on the paper pattern but would also remind them that they have limited time to finish each question. Thus, it is significant for them to start time management as they might need some extra time for the tricky questions.

Let’s now discuss all these 4 sections in detail, so that the aspiring candidates get a more in-depth view of what type of questions the can probably expect.

Reasoning and Computer Aptitude Section

It was observed that the questions featured in this section were difficult. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that could this section was the most difficult of all the 4 sections and included questions from Data Sufficiency, Seating Arrangements (Linear and Circular), Statement- Cause and Effect, Statement Inferences, Coding-Decoding, Logical Reasoning and Machine Input Output. What shocked the candidates was the fact that contrary to their expectations, there were no questions asked from Computer Aptitude.

The Logical Reasoning, Sitting Arrangement and Puzzles were the trickiest sections and included questions related to the course of action, cause and effect, conclusion and inference. Talking about puzzles, the questions were regarding Figure-based Puzzles, Linear (North-South) 2 Variable and Small-Para Puzzles. The reason they were the trickiest because the information given in the question was little compared to what the candidates had to deduce from it.

The following table provides a clearer picture of the questions that were present in this section.

Topic

No. of questions

Sitting Arrangements and Puzzles

15

Logical Reasoning

10

Coded Blood Relation

4

Coded Direction Sense

5

Input-Output

5

Data Sufficiency

2

Miscellaneous

4

Total

45

English Language

Like the previous section, the English language section of the paper was also difficult. The questions included Sentence Correctors, Spot the errors, Fill in the Blanks and Para Jumbles. Apart from this, there were two reading comprehensions with 5 questions each. It has been recorded that majority of the candidates believed that this section was more difficult as compared to the previous year (2016).

Each sub-section of this section was different from the previous year’s question pattern. For instance, for fill in the blanks questions, there were two plausible answers given against the blank, out which the candidate had to choose the right one. Also, in the error correction question, the candidates were tricked as in each question, there was a sentence that was marked bold, highlighting that it was grammatically correct. The candidate subsequently had to find the error in the rest of the sentence.

The following table provides the number of questions in each sub-section of this section.

Topic

No. of questions

Reading Comprehension

10

Synonym/Antonym

4

Cloze Test

6

Error Detection

4

Rephrasing Sentence to correct grammatical form

3

Corrector Usage

2

Double Filler (fill in the blanks)

3

Para Jumble

3

Total

35

Data Analysis and Interpretation

The 35 questions present in this section of the exam were difficult and calculative. The questions included in this section were based on Inequality, Data Interpretation, Data Sufficiency and Number series. The inequality questions were based on Quantity 1 and Quantity 2 pattern. Not only this, 2 out of the 5 Inequality question were based on diagrams. The questions on Data Sufficiency and Number Series were moderately difficult. There were 3 sets of Data Interpretation- Tabular (missing) + Bar, Tabular and Caselet. Each set had 4 questions each.

The following table shows the number of questions that were based on each sub-section.

Topic

Number of questions

Data Interpretation

15

Data Sufficiency

5

Number series

5

Inequality

5

Miscellaneous

5

Total

35

General Economy and Banking Awareness

This particular section of the exam was said to be the easiest one, even though the difficulty level was moderate. The questions in this section saw a mix of questions from Economy, Banking awareness (current and static), Current Affairs and statics. The Current Affairs questions were based on dance forms, dams and politics.

The following table shows the number of questions that were based on each sub-section of this section.

Topic

Number of questions

Banking Affairs

15

Economy

9

Current Affairs

8

Static

8

Total

40

Now that we have discussed the objective part of the exam, let’s move to the second part of the exam- Descriptive writing test.

Descriptive Writing Test

In this section, the candidate had 30 minutes to attempt to writing questions related to Letter writing and Essay writing. There were 3 Essays and 3 Letter Writing questions from which a candidate had to choose 1 from each section. The candidates were marked out of 25 for this.

Essay writing

1.Advantages and Disadvantages of the Cashless Economy.

2.Are gadgets interfering with the Intellectual capabilities of humans?

3.Which reform in Indian education can be compared with International level?

Letter writing

1.Write a letter to you friend encouraging him and advising him to plan his own start-up.

2.Write a letter to your colleague.

3.Write a letter to your branch manager requesting him to block your credit card as you’ve lost it and ask him to issue you a new card.